They also have a "Habitot" room with all sorts of toddler sized activities.
Soren tried his hand at ice fishing
They have an awesome kid-sized town with a grocery store, post office, doctor's office, and Soren's favorite- a restaurant with kitchen!
Finding just the right ingredients
And working the cash register
A Walking Boy!
For the past month or so we've known that Soren can take steps on his own, it just has required a whole lot of trickery to get him to do it. And usually he would take a few steps, stop, and then sit down. But today all of a sudden he just took off!! And once he had confidence he could do it he just kept going! No trickery involved! (Except in this video we made for daddy, which required candy corn to guarantee his performance).
Carving a pumpkin with mom (and aunts and uncle!)
Soren was suprisingly squeamish about the pumpkin guts, and made this face most of the evening...
From left to right: Tom, Mary, Kayt, Beth, and Neal. The picture doesn't do them justice!
Raaaawr!! Soren the lion!
Soren was terrified of the trick-or-treaters that came to our door- who can blame him? Big kids in scary/weird outfits? He watched the door warily the whole evening!
Later in the evening our neighborhood blocked off the street and brought firepits and beverages out into the street. It was a great time (although I didn't bring the camera!)
Here's Soren watching the boys Wii box, and trying to get in on the action (or is he dancing? Not completely sure)
Family picture at the playground
Looking deceptively cute and happy
The only thing Isaac and I insisted that we do in Chicago was to visit our favorite restaurant in the whole wide world Thai Spice. I am not exaggerating when I say they have hands down the best Panang Curry out there. Unfortunately Soren cried from the time we walked in the door until dessert was cleared. And then he turned into Mr. Sunshine. It helped that Sam was being hilarious and sticking pieces of paper to their foreheads and then blowing them off.
On the flight home with daddy
Isaac said to me yesterday "I wonder what we can do next time to make this easier" and my reply was "what the @#%$ do you mean next time, the only way to make this better is for there to not be a next time!" Sigh!
Playing in the sunny living room. (Don't tell Soren but he's standing there not holding on to anything! Although Soren can stand on his own and has even taken a couple of steps, if he realizes what he's doing he quickly sits down.)
The two lovebirds trying out Coco's rocker
It doesn't get a whole lot better than this!
Millie, clearly thinking deep thoughts
Drink break!
I've been thinking a lot of what kind of clever caption to put on the next series of pictures, and I keep coming back to that scene in "Young Frankenstein" which if you haven't seen will probably go totally unappreciated...."roll, roll, roll in zee hay!" (Note: I'm pretty sure in this first picture Tony is trying to pry his daughter off of Soren)
Soren doesn't appear to mind too much. I have about ten more pictures of Millie repeatedly climbing on Soren, but you get the idea. 
Portrait of a boy and his dada
Coco driving the tractor
Coco and Millie love each other very much. It's so cute to hear them say each other's names!
Getting a wagon ride out to the apple orchard
Soren was all about his apple.
Alex, Millie, and Tony
Rumspringa from the apple orchard. Isn't it dreamy?
It was a memorable day to say the least, and we look forward to going back in the years to come!
Millie, Johanna, and Soren
Sweet Millie
Soren getting some love from Johanna
Millie saw Johanna moving in on her guy and rushed over
....and one upped her! Take that Zach!
"It's okay girls, there's enough love to go around!"
Playing at the park
